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Friday, 8 November 2013

Bushtucker forage garden beginnings

On the opposite side of the dam to the potager there is an even steeper slope covered in small rocks designed to stabilise the ground during the rainy season. According to our neighbours and the local landscape supply man the water comes fairly high during the rainy season and prior to the driveway and dam being rebuilt, the house was nearly inaccessible during the floods. So in terms of an ornamental garden or grazing space it's off the books. Well, that was until we decided that we'd rather people couldn't see right into our garage from the road and some lateral thinking came into play.

Living in Logan is bringing us closer in touch with the native fauna and flora and the variety of both of these is amazing to see. Most Aussies would be familiar with the lomandra (spiny-head mat-rush) that graces nearly every traffic island and the edge of every park pond in Brisbane. Proudly, we have a small version of this and the increasingly popular dianella growing all on their own in various parts of the property. No doubt there are many other natives just waiting to come up if left to their own devices.

While wide open spaces certainly have their appeal, I do feel a pang of remorse owning a mostly cleared block and then reading about all our endangered species of both flora and fauna. We can shake our heads all we like at new developments, but at the end of the day our's was a new development once upon a time. So in a small gesture to help rectify the situation we've decided to put the unusable to many good uses by planting a variety of native trees, shrubs and climbers. In true permie style here's a list of the multiple benefits of the project:

Firstly to screen the view from the road for more privacy

Stabilise the slope to reduce topsoil runoff into waterways, which will incidentally also protect our new fishies in the dam as well as reducing the chance of algal blooms and generally improve water quality

Provide habitat and food for birds, butterflies and other creatures

Replant some local native vegetation that has previously been cleared - most of the plants are native to South-East Queensland and a large number are local to the suburb

Provide a forage garden as a back-up supply of food for us - all plants are edible in some shape or form, although I'm sure some will be more palatable to the parrots, possums and pigeons

Serve as a wind-break for the potager

Cast shade and create microclimate around the dam to reduce evaporation

Be ornamental in its own way

A mandated car trip for an interview over an hour away into the horror traffic and narrow hilly streets of the Northside of Brisbane provided the excuse for a calming visit to the Greening Australia nursery. (Apologies to Northsiders - nothing against you personally, I'm just not used to the other side of the river, and besides someone did decide to play a game of chicken with me in which I was the chicken and swerved to the wrong side of the road to go around them -madness!). Run mostly by volunteers, the nursery is a treasure trove of various native species catering to all shapes, sizes, situations - sunny, shaded, sandy or soggy. To add to this it's also very cheap so ditch the forlorn specimens at those two competing awful gigantic warehouses and pick up some local, native plants for less than half the price - and no, I'm not receiving any sort of commission. The only draw-back was that individual plants weren't labelled - so instead of having to sit on your living room floor with your list, plants and Google images up on your laptop; take photos of the sign and plant on your phone or camera while you're at the nursery.

Taking the list I'd constructed over a few nights, I headed in and hallelujah they had everything sorted into groups by size/type and then alphabetically! Not everything on my wish list was available (or perhaps I didn't see it) but the vast majority was and I also found a couple of extra ornamentals for the pretty garden near the house.

To start with we've purchased mostly top-storey plants which will need to grow and establish before many of the smaller, less sun tolerant plants can be added. We're fortunate to have the space for some very tall and beautiful trees that would just never fit in a suburban yard unless regular altercations with the neighbours, local council and various inanimate things like plumbing, roofs and powerlines were the sort of thing we enjoyed doing with our spare time.

About Me

We live on a semi-rural block in subtropical to temperate South-East QLD. After moving here nearly a year ago we have restarted our gardening and self-sufficiency journey from scratch. We keep chickens, grow fruit and vegetables as organically as possible and experiment with new recipes and ideas around the home in order to tread more lightly on the planet and delight in domestic discoveries. We hope you enjoy reading our quirky stories about our adventures and mishaps.